Reviewer:
THavelick
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favoritefavorite -
November 27, 2007
Subject:
Home Economics and Kingly Scams
Looking for insights into the ideas of Political Economy of Ancient thinkers, I found this Aristotle's Oeconmica, or Economics.
Oeconomica consists on two Books, the First covers how to maintain and run a household, with a smidgen of business advice. Most of what is presented here is out of date and covers the proper care of slaves, roles of the wife and things of that nature.
The second book covers how various levels of government acquire funds. The first part thereof discusses traditional means, namely, taxes of various forms and trade. The second part of Book II consists of alternative ways of gaining state revenue, which basically is a treaste on how various leaders of the time have scammed their people out of extra money when needed through trickery of some kind. Some of these scams are pretty humorous, but have little contemporary value.
The one positive here is the translation. I don't know how accurate it is, but it flows well and is easy to read.
The volume also contains the text of the Athenian Constitution, which I did not read.